Scam surge batters banks

CHANDIGARH: Of late, many bank fraud cases have rocked the city with an alarming regularity.

Two days ago, a manager of Sector 24 branch of Punjab & Sindh Bank, Rajinder Singh Kalsi, was arrested for running a racket of fraudsters that cheated the bank of about Rs 20 crore.

And an "industrialist", Vishal Jaiswal of Panchkula, was arrested on Saturday for obtaining a loan of Rs 78 lakh from Punjab National Bank (PNB), Sector 22, on the basis of fake documents. The last six months have seen 24 people being arrested for fraudulently obtaining and giving 180 loans, causing a loss of around Rs 27 crore to banks. These included housing, personal, vehicle, and study loans, among others.

Figures available with the police department show that most of the swindlers followed the same modus operandi while applying for loans. They submitted fake documents of property that was already mortgaged, invested the loan money in ventures other than those disclosed and after sometime, stopped paying the installments. Economic offences wing DIG Alok Kumar said, "There has been a sudden increase in bank fraud cases. To some extent, laxity on the part of bank employees is responsible for it. It is for the first time that the manager of a leading bank has been caught for running an organized racket. In other cases, we are investigating the role of bank employees too."

The banks that have been cheated include Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala, HDFC Bank, Punjab & Sindh Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra, among others. A senior EOW officer said, "It is difficult to recover the cheated money if swindlers have invested it in property, vehicle and stock market, among others. For recovering the amount, we have to seize the property and auction it after obtaining a court's permission. And it is quite a lengthy procedure."